Beth’s Foolproof French Macaron Recipe

Oh the French macaron….the world’s most finicky cookie! Let’s face it, these cookies are hard! They can seriously drive you crazy! I too have had my battles. But this foolproof French Macron Recipe will come to your rescue!

The trick with these cookies is patience and to follow the steps exactly!

In fact, before you set out, it might be easier to watch my French macaron recipe video below and then give it a go.

There’s nothing quite like seeing the success of smooth macaron tops, with bottoms that don’t stick to the pan, complete with feet, come out of the oven!

And believe me it took several tries, and endless revisions, to get it right! Yes, I too have “been there!” did I mention these cookies can drive you crazy?!

Are French Macarons Really That Hard to Make?

In a word, YES. There’s just so much that can go wrong! Between the under-mixing and the over-mixing issues, the baking time, the cracks, the lack of feet….and the list goes on! If you don’t believe me, here’s more on that topic. As a result, I set out to see if I could create a foolproof French macaron recipe. A recipe that may take some practice, but in the end would cause less problems and less hassle for us all. And friends, here it is!

DO YOU HAVE TO MAKE FRENCH MACRONS WITH ALMOND FLOUR?

Yes. Almond flour or Almond Meal is the same thing and I find it’s the perfect nut for creating the right chewiness in the cookie. Some people have had success with cashew flour and pistachio flour, but I can’t say it worked for me. I ended up with horrible cracks, whereas with the almond flour it’s smooth sailing! Bob’s Red Mill brand is my favorite brand of Almond Flour that I think works really well (This link goes to Amazon where I am an affiliate partner)

A few other tips for a foolproof French Macaron before you begin.

TIP#1: DON’T USE COLD EGGS

Be sure to start with with room temperature eggs. If you forgot to take your eggs out just set them in some warm water for 5-10 minutes.

TIP#2: BE GENEROUS WITH THE FOOD COLORING

I prefer the gel food coloring, I think it’s easier to control how many drops you put in. But the color tends to fade with baking so add a shade or two darker of coloring past the desired shade, when they bake it will fade.

TIP #3: IT’S ALL ABOUT THE FOLDING (This is what takes some practice!)

You’ll gently fold the almond flour mixture into the egg whites with a rubber spatula. This is usually where it can all go wrong. Getting the sense of when to stop is really a thing that just comes with practice. Under mix and your macaroons will be lumpy and cracked when the bake with no feet, over mix and your macaroons will be flat and won’t have feet, the mark of a well-made macaron.

SO HOW MANY STROKES DOES IT TAKE?

In my experience 65-75 turns of your spatula when folding, is about the right amount of time. But again, it can be tricky, depends on how strong you are, Ha! So it can take a few tries to get it right. But when you do, the trumpets will blare and you will feel SO accomplished!

TIP: To assure that your buttercream do not separate make sure your raspberries are at room temperature! If they are fresh out of the fridge, the juice won’t combine with the butter at all!

Instructions

Whip until they form a peak that stands upright. Think Seattle Space needle.

Then add the food coloring.

Sift almond flour, and powdered sugar. What remains will be the larger lumps of almond pieces. Just discard those, or use them to snack on 🙂 You want a really fine powder mixture to create a smooth and pretty on top to your cookie.

Fold flour/sugar mixture into the egg white mixture. About 65-75 good strokes.

Transfer batter to a pastry bag.

Pipe out 1 inch rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Tap the pan hard at least 2-3 times to release the air bubbles. This will prevent the tops of your macaroons from cracking.

Let them sit out for 20-30 mins, or up to an hour if you want. This will allow them time to dry out a bit before hitting the hot oven. They should be “tacky” to the touch, but not stick to your fingertips. This is another important step to assuring your macarons develop feet! When they dry out they can’t spread out in the oven, and are forced to rise up. That’s what creates the feet!

Bake for 20 mins. DO NOT UNDER BAKE, even if they look done! Otherwise they will stick to your tray.

Meanwhile mix the buttercream. Whip butter with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Slowly add sugar. Then place sieve on top of a bowl the same size. Work raspberries through the sieve with a spatula, pushing them through, mashing them around until you extract their juice. You want 3 tablespoons of juice.

Add juice to buttercream, and whip until combined. Transfer to a pastry bag, fitted with a small tip (about ¼ ” in diameter)

Reverse cookie shells on their backs, and pipe a small mound of filling on one of them. Top with the other shell et Voila!

If not eating right away, keep refrigerated.

Notes

Be sure to start with with room temperature eggs. If you forgot to take your eggs out just set them in some warm water for 5-10 minutes.

The color tends to fade with baking so add a shade or two darker of food coloring past the desired shade, when they bake it will fade.

In my experience 65-75 turns of your spatula when folding in the dry ingredients, is about the right amount of time.

Thank you for your several tries and endless revisions. I followed you’re instructions and got it right the first time! The batter didn’t spread, I got feet!! I modified the flavor and put 2.5 tbsp cocoa powder in the macaron batter. Then I filled them with a ring of cream cheese frosting and a dollop of chocolate ganache. I was able to make 27 macarons with this recipe. I’ve been watching so many baking shows where macarons are made and have been looking forward to trying them myself.

Hi Beth, macaron first-timer over here! I followed your recipe to a T and thoroughly watched your video twice, and my macarons came out PERFECT!!! Thank you so so much for providing such a great recipe with super helpful tips, will definitely be trying out your other recipes!

Yes but I would definitely do a test run first since Sunday is pushing the 3-day limit in the fridge, after that they start to dry out and get too crumbly. But try it and see if you think they are to your liking 🙂

Okay you saved my rear today, I went to the store to buy these to decorate a cake with for this week. I usually go to home goods because they always have a small amount that I can use and not have to fail fail fail the recipe. wasting expensive ingredients. Typically I hate these and simply refuse to make them. this recipe was first time success and I even half-ed the recipe (used two egg whites they were large not jumbo) that I thought would end up a total failure and it worked!!! you’re amazing and I appreciate it so much! This will be my new and only go to thank you thank you, I dont have to buy them any more!

These came out perfect! First time i ever made them. I used large eggs and they looked on the smaller size so i used one extra egg white. I will use this recipe again. Going to try different flavors next time.

THANK YOU!! I made perfect macarons my first try thanks to your foolproof recipe! I was so inspired that I tried another recipe the next day. Fail. I’m making my third batch in three days (using YOUR recipe again tonight!) and they are coming out beautifully! Your recipe is truly foolproof!!

I have a question, do you recommend using a convection oven? If so, how should I adjust the temp/time? Would a convection oven yield even better results? 🙂

Ha!! YAY! So glad you have had success! Isn’t it the best feeling? LOL! OK as far as convection oven, I find they actually work better without it! (browned in weird places?!) so I say regular oven setting is the way to go! Keep up the good work!!

Thank you so much for the great recipe and tips and tricks! 🙂 I made these a few nights ago with a different foolproof recipe only to fail dismally!! I was determined to try again (mostly tonstop the kids nagging at me to make them) and so glad I did using your recipe – they turned out beautifully- such a proud moment. Even added a few drops of a darker colouring gel after I had piped out half the mixture and other than taking a couple more mins to cook they came out great. Ended up with perfect little pink and purple buttons of joy and did bubblegum flavoured buttercream in the second half of the batch. Thanks again for an actual foolproof recipe!

That may be important that you use jumbo eggs. I have a theory that eggs may be a variable causing issues for some people. What brand, size, type/breed, and age of eggs could make a huge difference, as all the other ingredients need to be so precisely handled. I have noted lately that the large eggs (cage free, brown, not cheap) we buy are on the line of being medium. And it took 4 eggs to get 110 g of whites. The store brand had smaller yolks, so it only took 3 to get over 100 g, but they were much runnier (and that batch was a disaster but I had other differences.) The aging controversy could be due to some people having runnier wetter types of eggs that do need to evaporate some water, and others may use a brand with denser whites or proper large eggs. Please do measure your whites once to let us know how much you are adding. I don’t think we have jumbo eggs available regularly. Also… Using fresh home grown eggs, the sizes vary widely from our diverse flock, so measuring will be essential if I were using them.

I am doing an egg-speriment on this issue and keeping records of details of eggs I use including weight and volume and testing various amounts of aging. I observed I’m losing about 2 g of weight in a few days in the fridge, so that is a significant amount of water.

Oh no I wouldn’t do that. These cookies are so finicky! You really shouldn’t switch things up with this recipe. The white sugar is what makes them light and allows for the science to turn them into these dainty confections 🙂 Brown sugar is too heavy for these and is better for things like dense quick breads, muffins, dougher cookies etc.

OMG ~ I have NOT ONCE made macarons, I have researched and read and watched…I chose your recipe to try ~ I have the most beautiful fat feet on my macarons!! They ever so slightly browned, but I’ll just cut a min on the oven, it did read at 300, but i am beyond THRILLED! Thank you SO much for giving me the confidence to do more! I had only read nightmare after nightmare of trying these!

I’ve made 2 batches of these and I’m obsessed! I made the raspberry buttercream to fill some, but it separated, I had my raspberry puree at room temp as well as the butter. I added a little more powered sugar too. I went ahead and used it anyways, tasted good just didn’t have the creamy consistency I wanted.

Hi there, I’ve tried this recipe a few times and love it! I’ve gotten great results every time! I’m not sure if someone already asked this question but would I be able to add some cocoa powder to the powdered sugar/almond flour mix without messing it up or would that put everything out of wack? Thanks!

These macarons were so delicious! I used the cookie part of the recipe and made a few different buttercream icings to go with them- the cookie recipe is spot on! I got feet! I also highly recommend putting them in the fridge overnight to absorb some of the icing flavors- they were so much better the next morning.

Hey Beth, I’ve tried making these twice. This second time the batter seemed fine, but when I pipe them onto the sheet pan they spread out. I added about a teaspoon of vanilla to the egg whites (I had seen that in another recipe I tried). Could that be messing up my batter? They had feet the first time I made them, but spread out and were really thin. Thanks!

I’ve made this recipe numerous times and I’ve always had successful macarons, except for once, when it was raining. I definitely recommend this recipe, you can not go wrong if you follow all of the tips and tricks!

Hi i have been using your recipe for the third time and im loving it. I would like to thank you for that. I was gonna ask can i double this recipe? Im a bit hesitant doing so since it has been consistently good i might ruin it by doubling.

Beth!! You saved me, truly! I made two other types that failed, before trying yours, I was about ready to give up! I promised someone these, thinking I am an experienced baker I could do it I am super familiar with meringue. WELL they ARE not easy by any means; but now I made your recipe twice, one full one halved and both turned out great. The second better than first because by then I had a feel for the batter. thank you so much for your beautifully written recipe and video. I dont typically comment but I just had to say thank you for saving my butt. 🙂 I will subscribe for sure.

Hi Beth, I’ve commented before and I have a new question. I want to make lemon macarons but your recipe is the best one I have used. Do you have any ideas on how to achieve this? Some recipes I’ve seen have used lemon zest, some how used juice and others had used extract. How much should I use? I’m also making a lemon buttercream to fill them. Thanks!

This is the best recipe – I am up at 4:45 AM right now because it took me 3 recipes before I got to this one and I am now on my 4th batch of this recipe and every single macaron is perfect. This is also the easiest recipe so far. I made 2 batches of this exact recipe, the 3rd was with half almond flour and half pistachio flavor, and then the last recipe is almond flour but with lemon extract and even the variations are turning out so well! This is officially a life saver.

This recipe turned out perfect for me. They are gorgeous! I added more color than I thought I needed as recomended, but my color gel must be really strong because they are electric pink! But so tasty. These are worth every bit of effort. Don’t skip a step!

Well arrowroot is a great sub for cornstarch, but I don’t think it is acidic like the cream of tartar. The acid is what stabilizes the whites and prevents them from falling when you mix in the dry ingredients. I would go get it, it’s pretty cheap and you only need a small bottle of it. Hope that helps!

hi beth, i am not a regular reader and stumbled on this recipe when looking for a macaron recipe without scale measurements. i have tried these cookies many times and have only seen success a couple times (and only after 3, 4, or even 5 tries..). but this recipe was successful on my very first try!! i can’t believe i’ve finally found my holy grail, foolproof EASY goto macaron recipe. thank you! going to impress my coworkers at a work baby shower!

my only additional tip that i’ve gathered from other recipes is that you can test if you’re done folding by holding the spatula with some macaron dough (batter?) ribboning off and the ribbon slowly melts back in to the rest of the bowl of dough (batter?). you were exactly right-67 folds for me, turning the bowl a little with each fold.

Hi, forgive my ignorance but what’s the difference between the confectioners sugar and the white sugar? Here in England we have Caster sugar (finer) and granulated (bigger crystals of sugar)… Thanks in advance x P.s I take it powdered sugar is our type of icing sugar?

Hi Beth! Thanks for the recipe, it really works! What food gel colouring brand would you recommend? I made some green ones (for pistachio), the colour was really weak (even though I used lots) and then the tops caught slightly and were brown. Is this to do with the brand of food colour gel or the oven temperature? Thanks!

Personally I like the gel food coloring, I think the color lasts longer. But tops browning is definitely an oven that is too hot. Try reducing the heat 25 degrees and baking a bit longer 5-7 mins and make sure the oven rack isn’t too close to the heating implement it should be in third lower third portion of the oven. Hope that helps!

I tried the Italian method once, and they turned out like small brown hockey pucks! I was so excited when I made these yesterday and they had feet and were flavorful. I noticed that mine were a bit hollow, but that doesn’t bother me too much. Thank you so much for this great recipe. My 10 yr old baby sister and I made these and she was so excited when I told her that they had feet and we had made the macarons correctly (she has always loved the Whole Foods ones), and we both look forward to making these again!

I came across your foolproof tips for French macaroons while looking for a recipe and made sure to use them in my first attempt at them and I must say, you were not kidding about the over \ under mixing. I didnt have a pastry bag big enough for all the batter so I had to divide it in 2, and after I piped out the first lot I worried I under mixed so I gave the remaining batter another few turns and after piping they were much flatter and spread further. I am still waiting to put them in the oven to see if I get any feet at all but I just wanted you to know that were it not for your tips I wouldn’t have even been able to guess where I went wrong. I’ve never seen or tried French macaroons before and am looking forward to it. Thanks for your help.

So I am not a baker by any means. I have never baked cookies, a cake or a box mix of brownies before. But I have always loved the idea of a macaron for some reason. Then I had my first one a few years ago and they have been firmly planted at the top of the list of cookies that I enjoy. We tried a boxed kit and disappointing does not begin to hint at how bad they were. My wife found your video of tips and I said, ‘alright Ill try it.’ It was so much fun watching my wife, my 5 year old and 3 year old getting excited that the “macaron has feet!” Long story short. Great tips, good recipe and a lot of family fun. Now to find some fun flavor combinations. Thank you

Awe love hearing that story! Thanks for sharing it with me 🙂 As a Mom of 2 kids myself I love to see how cooking can bring the family together in such fun and exciting ways! 🙂 So glad you got the feet! BRAVO!!

I have never written a review or posted a comment to any recipe before, but I felt like I just had to for this one. This is the most perfect and truly foolproof macaron recipe. I own a small wedding cake business in Santa Barbara and people ask for macarons as a favor gift quite often. I have a recipe from my time in pastry school but it would only work in my home oven and not in our commercial convection ovens at the bakery. This one turns out perfect every time!! I am so so so thankful for you in posting this as I was just about to give up and not offer these sweet little treats. Apparently our magic number of folds is 70 🙂 thank you thank you thank you!!

Awe so glad to hear they have been a hit! Yes 65-75 is apparently the magic number of strokes 🙂 I have a soft spot for SB, I went to the city college there for 2 years and just loved living in that wonderful community! I still have the best memories of the farmers market there on State Street. 🙂

I made these macaroons just now. They’re out of the oven and cooling. They totally kept their shape as they were when I piped the batter onto the cookie sheet, only they did rise quite a bit. They have a swirled shaped. I noticed too that when I put them into the oven the batter was hard and not tacky., even though they only set out for 35 minutes before going into the oven.

I have never made macaroons and have someone asking if I can make them with a mold to look like seashells. I told them I didn’t think it would work, am I right? I am however going to try your recipe for this Valentines Day. Thank you for sharing it.

my daughter loves macarons and we do not have any bakery nearby that makes fresh macarons so I decided to learn for her. I had a couple of failed attempts and then I landed at your recipe. It turned out to be perfect, I am so happy and so is my daughter that now we do not have to drive 45 plus miles to get macarons, mommy can make it anytime. Thank you so much, I am addicted to your blog.

Totally nailed it first time around! Defiantly going to be my go to recipe from now on! Thank you for all the great advice! I did a double batch and managed to get a whole bunch out in no time using my double oven!

Hi Beth! last night i tried to make French Macarons but it didnt work… i think i under mix and my macarons was a mess. The thing is… my oven only bakes the lowest at 356F (180 celsius)…what should i do? because its way hotter than the desired temperature.